At exactly two o'clock on the following Saturday, Grace, Remus, Peter, James and Sirius headed down to McGonagall's office with their heads hung low.
"Good afternoon gentleman, and Miss Thorne," she greeted them as they entered through the doorway. "Now, for you detention today you will be cleaning both my office and the Transfiguration classroom. Understood?"
James groaned, but a quick nudge from Sirius shut him up. "If you do that she'll give us more," he whispered through tight lips, before reply to McGonagall. "Of course Professor."
"You'll find the equipment you need in the corner," she told them as she sat down at her desk. "And if I see anyone using their wand, they'll start losing house points."
Grace sighed and picked up a broom - the ordinary kind, not the flying kind unfortunately - and began to sweep the dust on the floor into a small pile.
It took the five of them one hour to clean the office from top to bottom. Grace and Remus swept, Peter dusted the cupboards and James and Sirius wiped everything down, although it didn't take long for the two of them to start throwing the wet cloths at each other.
"Mr Potter! Mr Black! Do you want Gryffindor to lose the house cup again?" cried McGonagall, who had been watching the two of them like a hawk.
Ravenclaw had won the house cup last year, as well as the Quidditch cup, and it was still quite a touchy subject for James, the youngest member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was a chaser, and was absolutely devastated when Ravenclaw beat them in the grand final and then went on to win the house cup, so he was determined not to let them win this time.
"No, Professor," they replied, before turning to the shelf they had been cleaning and scrubbing it hard with their cloths.
Once they had finished cleaning her office, Professor McGonagall escorted them to the main Transfiguration classroom where they began to do the same.
At around four o'clock, their cleaning was interrupted by a knock on the door. The Professor got up and swung it open to reveal none other than Lily Evans.
"Professor McGonagall! It's the seventh year Slytherins - they have Ely and - oh please you have to help," she cried
"The five of you stay put," Mcgonagall barked at them as she left the room, following after Lily with her wand raised.
"Oh no! Poor Ely! I wonder what's happened," Grace said, peering out the door. "Do you think we should go help as well?"
"Whatever it is, I'm sure McGonagall can handle it," Remus told her, coming up behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder.
---
Just down the hall from the Transfiguration classroom, five seventh year Slytherin students were crowded around a frightened fourth year Hufflepuff who was crouched down on the floor with his hands gripping his blond hair, as if he thought that he made himself small enough, they would leave him alone.
But instead, the five seventh years were circling him, throwing taunting words in his face.
"Are you scared, little Puff?"
"A mudblood and a Hufflepuff! How quaint..."
"The Dark Lord's going to kill you one day, you know?"
"Yeah, he's going to kill all the filthy little mudbloods, and then maybe Hogwarts will finally become a good school."
"It's never going to be good with that muggle loving fool in charge."
"Well then the Dark Lord will have to off him too!"
They all chuckled darkly, including the other two seventh years who were lying on the floor, having been hit by a Jelly-Legs Jinx from the wand of Abigail Pinehood. After casting the two jinxes, however, one of the seventh years had hit her with a Full Body Binding Curse, leaving her frozen with her wand drawn, praying that Lily would come back with help soon.
Sam was standing beside her also frozen, his face contorted into one of fear and shock. They had been attacked out of the blue - walking down a corridor when one of the Slytherin girls, one that he was distantly related to, asked him why he was letting the family down even further by hanging around two muggleborns. The next thing he knew, wands were drawn and he found himself frozen, unable to do anything as they taunted his muggleborn friend.
"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?" McGonagall boomed as she entered the corridor, with Lily by her side.
"I knew we shouldn't have let the other mudblood go. She went and bloody told on us!" one of the Slytherins grumbled as he stepped away from Ely.
McGonagall quickly muttered the counter curse, unfreezing Abbey and Sam. "This behaviour is absolutely outrageous. Fifty points will be taken from Slytherin, and I will be contacting Professor SLughorn about further punishment," she told the group.
Abbey, Sam and Lily rushed over to Ely "Oh gosh, Ely, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit shaken is all. They didn't hurt me," he told them as he stood up from his place on the floor, and dusting himself off.
"Are you sure? Maybe we should take you to the hospital wing, just in case," Abbey asked, the concern clear in her voice.
"I'm fine," Ely insisted, smiling.
Abbey and Sam took Ely back to their Common Room and forced him to rest, whilst Lily went to the library, saying she had said she would meet Severus there. The seven Slytherins quickly disappeared from sight, and McGonagall returned to the Transfiguration classroom.
"Is he okay, Professor? What happened?" Grace asked as soon as she entered.
"Mr Witten is fine, Miss Thorne. I'm sure he can tell you himself what happened once you've finished cleaning the room."
She then noticed something that she hadn't noticed upon entering the classroom.
Whilst she had been absent, James, Sirius and Peter had taken the opportunity to draw several cats on the blackboard, using some chalk they'd found on the ground.
McGonagall sighed and pursed her lips, unsure if she should laugh or yell at them.
It had certainly been a long afternoon.
---
So this chapter went in a completely different direction to what I thought it would. The next chapter is really cheesy so I hope you're not lactose intolerant (badumtiss). I'm sorry that was awful.
Anyways yeah um here is chapter pls enjoy.
-Grace
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The Forest - R.L.
Fanfiction(Remus Lupin - Marauder's Era ) She was wandering through the forest when she saw it. A wolfish being, about as tall as herself, with scruffy grey-brown fur and a snarl forming on its lips. But she wasn't afraid. --- Grace Thorne is an eleven year o...
